The Government Poisoned Flint's Water—So Stop Blaming Everyone Else

A failure of local government, brought on by public employee pensions.

Flint, Michigan, was a sickly town long before residents discovered something toxic in their water.

The city's appallingly high crime rate makes it one of the most dangerous places in the country. Its automobile manufacturing industry declined and disappeared decades ago, plunging Flint into a depression from which it never recovered. Its residents are poor. And the local government is so badly in debt that the state had to appoint an emergency financial manager in 2011. Flint is Detroit without the historic appeal. You wouldn't want to live there. You wouldn't even want to visit.

On top of all that, local authorities were recently forced to admit that Flint's drinking water is contaminated with lead. The new water source might also be linked to 77 recent cases of Legionnaire's disease (resulting in 10 deaths) in the area.

The #FlintWaterCrisis has captured the nation's attention: many pundits have seized upon the fact Michigan is governed by a Republican, Rick Snyder, and have thus spun the disaster as one primarily caused by conservative indifference to poor black people. During last Sunday's Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton explicitly blamed the crisis on Snyder's leadership:

I spent a lot of time last week being outraged by what's happening in Flint, Michigan, and I think every single American should be outraged. We've had a city in the United States of America where the population which is poor in many ways and majority African American has been drinking and bathing in lead-contaminated water. And the governor of that state acted as though he didn't really care.

He had a request for help and he had basically stone walled. I'll tell you what, if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would've been action.

She reiterated this stance during an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who holds the same view. Michael Moore, who hails from Flint, all but accused Snyder of pouring lead in the water supply himself. Elsewhere at Salon, writer Elias Isquith blamed "austerity," since the root of the problem was the decision to seek a more efficient, cheaper water supply. That decision was not made by Snyder, nor was it made by his emergency financial manager, a Democrat. In fact, Flint's own city council and mayor approved the idea. State treasurer Andy Dillon—also a Democrat—signed off on it.

In hindsight, the execution of the decision to seek a new water supply was a disaster of epic proportions. But it is one entirely caused by government actors—most of them local government actors—and ignored by regulators until it was too late. The people who have thus far done too little to fix the crisis are also government actors—at the local, state, and even federal levels. Flint is mostly a failure of governance, not a failure of markets.

At the same time, let's not forget the reason why local authorities felt the need to find a cheaper water source: Flint is broke and its desperately poor citizens can't afford higher taxes to pay the pensions of city government retirees. As recently as 2011, it would have cost every person in Flint $10,000 each to cover the unfunded legacy costs of the city's public employees.

The #FlintWaterCrisis is not a blueprint for what would happen if libertarians abolished government and let poor people drink poisoned water, as some enemies of free markets are no doubt claiming. Instead, it's a great example of government failing to efficiently provide even the most basic of public services due to a characteristically toxic combination of administrative bloat and financial mismanagement.

But as long as the media is tossing out blame, perhaps Flint's public employees—who cannibalized a dying city's finances—deserve more than just a drop?

Updated at 3:30 p.m. on January 21: Local officials dispute that they played any formal role in the decision to use the Flint River—the source of the contamination—as a water source, instead pinning the blame on the state-appointed emergency manager. The emergency manager, on the other hand, says the decision was made by the city long before his appointment.

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Outstanding idea! Add to that that if they suddenly decide that cleaning up Flint’s water supply is worth spending on, they must provide the funds themselves out of their own private bank accounts and that not a penny will come from the public’s coffers.

“On top of all that, local authorities were recently forced to admit that Flint’s drinking water is contaminated with lead. The new water source might also be linked to 77 recent cases of Legionnaire’s disease (resulting in 10 deaths) in the area.”

A colleague who works in public health research believes the sharp jump in legionnaire’s is just a warning of what’s to come–it’s certainly not only the lead, it whatever the hell else was in those pipes. And 10 people died from the legionnaires in the last year and a half, which is way beyond chance. All my FB friends (none of whom live in the area) are blaming Snyder and his ‘fiscally responsible’ government. Here is one friend:but it is really hard to see this one as anything but a disaster caused by a clumsy attempt to be more “fiscally responsible” than concerned for public health and safety. Republicans own this one. It’s more important to score political goals than to actually understand what happened. Also, thanks, Robby, for posting this so I don’t have to FB link to the National Review saying essentially the same thing. Enough of my friends think I’m just a conservative anyway.

“This experience has really shattered my trust in government,” said Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a Flint pediatrician whose research showed a spike in lead poisoning among children after the city switched its water supply in 2014. “It’s not that I was naive to start with,

Uh, yeah, it has everything to do with the fact that you are a doctor and by definition don’t understand a goddamned thing about economics.

The lead isn’t from the water supply, it’s from the water supply LINES in each person’s residence.

The problem is that the Flint river water has a different PH which is causing the lead to leach out into the water. One would think that the (city ) public employees who run the water treatment facility would know that, but of course that assumes that they are competent which they clearly are not.

Why not blame Obama too though? After all, if Snyder is ‘in charge’ of all the local (and state) Democrats and can be held responsible for their decisions, can’t Obama be held responsible for his? Or does the buck just stop at the first R they come to as they go up the chain?

after reading this story from the various sources It’s really kind of amazing the level of mental gymnastics that you need to leap through to put the blame solely on the Republican Gov. but there it is.

The only involvement and mistake I can see here by the Rep. Governor is to have reappointed a Democrat, Dan Wyant, to DEQ who was originally appointed by a Democrat. The emergency managers he appointed did nothing wrong since they only approved on financial issues and made no decision (which were made by Flint City Council or civil servants). The finances approved included treatment for the water with limestone, which is incredibly cheap to begin with. All the mistakes were by professional civil servants trained in dealing with the water supply, or by Democrats stonewalling.

The EPA poisoned the Colorado River and the water supply of an entire Indian Tribe last year. And like always, Obama didn’t give a fuck. Obama’s reaction to these things is “does it affect me? Then suffer in silence”.

The city went broke and the thing they decided they could skimp on was the water supply. Flint Michigan is modern progressive government in a nutshell. People being forced to pay for poisoned water because all the tax money went to support lavish public pensions.

Remember Flint the next time some Progressive tells you how much they care about people.

Remember Flint the next time some Progressive tells you how much they care about people.

Something bad happened therefore it was the fault of right-wingers or Republicans or libertarians or corporations or rich people or white people, etc. not the fault of government or Democrats or Progressives or NGOs or etc.

“Before the appointment of the (Democratic) emergency manager, Flint’s elected mayor and city council (Democrats) had decided to sever the city’s relationship with its drinking-water supplier, which was at the time the Detroit water authority. Flint intended to join a regional water authority that would pipe water in from Lake Huron, a project that was scheduled to take three years to come online. In a fit of pique, Detroit (a city under unitary Democratic control) immediately moved to terminate Flint’s water supply, leaving the city high and literally dry.”

I played NPR-for-ten-seconds last night, which turned into NPR-for-three-minutes, and I have to say, they were pretty fair. Snyder’s Republican Bona-fides weren’t even mentioned– I didn’t know he was a Repub until reading this post. And the people and reporters giving commentary were putting the blame pretty squarely on local government actors, and the EPA official who apparently knew this was going on, and kept quiet about it until she could assess the EPA’s legal options.

The only focus on Snyder was the game of Political Whackbat that’s clearly unfolding.

That being said, I have faith that in the end, it’ll all end up being underfunded government agencies demanding more money, more taxes, more oversight, more regulations (regulations which will make sure the existing, ignored regulations are followed).

Whenever a bunch of government employees fuck up, the solution is, of course, to give them more money.

If the stock market functioned like the government, investors would always be scrambling to find the companies with the highest price/earnings ratio and the sketchiest balance sheets to invest more money in.

The fact that we are even talking about which party the various miscreants in this saga belong to shows how fucking stupid we have become. Seriously, who gives a shit which political party is responsible for this? Our governments have stopped functioning and providing the basic services governments are supposed to provide and seem in some places to be little more than transfer schemes to take money from tax payers and give it to public employee unions. Leave it to the media to ignore that and of course play the entire thing as some kind of political horse race which side can blame the other story.

Our governments have stopped functioning and providing the basic services governments are supposed to provide and seem in some places to be little more than transfer schemes to take money from tax payers and give it to public employee unions.

Water doesn’t have to be part of “the basic services governments are supposed to provide” since private water companies can do the same thing (with the advantage of not needing permission from their owners to sue them).

Hey, in fairness, it seems like the private sector was getting in on the broke-city gravy train, too! “Engineering consultants” were hired to figure out how to safely transfer Flint’s water source to the Flint River; they apparently did a bang-up job.

1. It’s entirely possible that this is the best solution that could have been with the given, government issued, constraints. 2. Fun Fact: Government officials are often amateur engineers on the side. 3. Consultants can and often are ignored.

It is a sick relationship. The bureaucrats don’t want to have to make a decision and the lawyers always want more power than they should have. So a law that says “can” is quickly read to “should” or “must” and the decision is made and no one can be held accountable. They were just following the rules you know.

But corporations are after profits, which means that they are conspiring to screw over the citizenry, since harming people is the only way to make profits. By contrast, the government is us, and we have good intentions. Therefore, when the government screws up, it’s just a simple mistake (unless evil Koch-funded operatives have infiltrated the government).

Instead, it’s a great example of government failing to efficiently provide even the most basic of public services due to a characteristically toxic combination of administrative bloat and financial mismanagement.

No it’s even worse than that. It’s the government virtually monopolizing the production of a basic and necessary economic good and then utterly failing to deliver. In that sense, one might actually construe this as a criminal act regardless of intent.

And then charged them for the service. You know as well as I do the people in Flint still are expected to pay their water bill every month. They get the privilege of paying for poisoned drinking water.

Of course the narrative will be that the poisoned-water was all the fault of “Corporate Cost-Cutting”

The solution is obviously more and better TOP MEN. With the right-color tie, which is obviously Blue. because blue-people have good intentions and are never selfish. The fact that no one can sue the government is a good thing because it ensures that mistakes will always have plenty of money to spend on their solutions.

She reiterated this stance during an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who holds the same view. Michael Moore, who hails from Flint, all but accused Snyder of pouring lead in the water supply himself.

This goes further than just “blaming the republican”, it’s protecting the Democrat, which in this case is essentially actively working towards keeping the child rapist working with kids.

Hundreds of tests of Flint water showed about 40% with a lead content above 5 ppm. Not a good thing, but still far below the EPA standard of 15 ppm, defined as “safe” and potable. In other words, there is no “health crisis”, just a lot of water with impurities … which may be disgusting, but is medically harmless.

The City Council knew well in advance that the Flint River was dirty, as did the state and federal regulators. Expecting politicians to be honest about the consequences of their decisions is fanciful.

The Flint River is not a particular “dirty” river compared to others in Michigan. It is actually about average. It wasn’t the water that was the problem, but rather the antiquated plumbing and treatment system that was in place.

Yes, the HOMES has levels of lead, the water SUPPLY did not. That’s the indication that lead piping in the homes is the crux of the issue. The Flint Water Department is supposed to treat the water, just like the Detroit Water Department did. But every city employee in Flint is an unskilled, corrupt, lying Democrat – they didn’t do their jobs and the drinkable-but-untreated water is now destroying the pipes in at least 25% of the homes in Flint and injuring the residents. The oversight agencies are also filled with unskilled, corrupt, lying assholes (of both parties) and also did not do their jobs. But like police incompetence, they will all be immune to criminal charges.

Because who gives a flying fuck about Flint? Even the mayor of Flint doesn’t give a flying fuck about Flint.

Because the water in the Flint river is more corrosive than the water that Flint was getting from Detroit either because Detroit adjusted the chemistry with additives or because Lake Huron water is naturally less corrosive.

A water treatment plant is not a one size fits all proposition; the physical process and additives used are set up specifically to deal with the properties of both the water they’re treating and the system it’s being distributed through. For whatever reason Flint didn’t get the chemistry right and took too long to address the issue… I suspect a government official, who’s only experience with corrosion is the rust on his car and the nice new copper pipes in his home probably, uttered the phrase “it’s only a couple years” and with the best of intentions chose a riskier plan.

A similar thing happened in Tuscon when they were forced to switch from wells to Colorado river water in the 90’s; the only difference there is that out west the infrastructure is newer so there are fewer lead and galvanized pipes (which tend to trap lead over years of use) to release lead into the system as they corrode away.

As a semi-regular poster here, and having spent most of my life in Flint, and writing about it here once in a while, I’ll add a few things I think worth mentioning.

I think this article does a good job highlighting one thing that hardly anyone else has touched, and that is the utter failure of Flint’s local government to effectively manage the city’s finances for decades. Practically every media source I’ve seen has been blaming the Governor, but there has been little about the fact that an Emergency Manager was only in place because, with a few exceptions, most of the leadership of Flint has been either incompetent or corrupt, and almost uniformly Democrat of one stripe or another. Republicans are all but extinct within the city. And there is little political accountability — if the person has a D in front of his name, he’ll almost always be reelected.

A few years back, one of the past Mayors of the City, who was particularly poor at its financial management, and was engaged in all sorts of nepotism and cronyism, was bad enough that he was, surprisingly, recalled. The ultimate result of the chaos and insolvency he oversaw, however, was not to be found in a quiet life of disgrace. Rather, he was soon elected to the office of State Representative.

Our Congressman, who had only a passing knowledge of the Bill of Rights, despite representing us at the Federal level for over 35 years, finally retired a few years ago. Apparently, according to the voters of Flint, the best possible replacement for this Representative was nephew, who I imagine will stay in office until his age becomes so advanced that his own son, or nephew, or future trophy wife, will be forced to assume the same obligation.

The article misses some key points, however:

1) First, it’s true that the City Council voted 7-1 on making the switch to the KWA (water supply.) The plan, which was essentially a creature of the Emergency Manager, had been studied, looked like a wise choice fiscally, and everyone was on board with it. The Emergency Manager (a Democrat, by the way, even though he was appointed by a Republican Governor) asked the Council to vote as a demonstration that everyone agreed with the plan — the vote itself was mere show, as the Council had long been stripped of power. At this point, City officials were very eager to take credit for the change, engage in photo ops, and the like. But it was actually really out of their hands at the time.

2) Once the choice had been made to switch, the Detroit water supply made the first nasty move in this drama. They immediately cancelled their existing agreement to supply Flint, forcing Flint to find a new supply, since the KWA wouldn’t be ready for two years.

3) Technical workers in Flint stated that they could process water from the Flint River in the interim. Unfortunately, this was a huge blunder. They were simply woefully unprepared for the task of treating the Flint River water through an antiquated, non-modernized system, and bit off much more than they could chew. These people have, to my knowledge, received very little blame, whereas they are at least partially responsible for the problem as well.

4) After this, there is a series of questions about who knew what, and when. A lot of accusations are still flying, and political witch hunting is in season. The media is greatly simplifying it, of course, trying to blame whomever was already in the particular presenter’s cross hairs. However, it appears at present that there was a dereliction of duty, and perhaps gross negligence, shared across several levels of government, and most parties involve share in the blame at some level. Of course, it’s all government, so that much is clear. But it’s also the people, who never bothered to enforce accountability or demand real change from their elected representatives — the ones who, decade after decade, made empty promises, bankrupted the city, and forced an Emergency Manager to be there in the first place.

Who made the call to not introduce a corrosion inhibitor into the Flint water? This is simple water treatment procedure. If your supply water has a certain pH, and you have lead lined pipes, you introduce a CCT of some sort. Period.

Not doing so was the technical blunder that set all of this into the shit show it now is.

Yes, exactly. I posted this same link above, which goes into more detail about the technical details and where things fell apart, but I’ll link it here again: http://gregbranchwords.com/201…..-in-flint/

Unfortunately, the problem, once discovered, was not quickly abated, and instead the results (and multitudes of anecdotal complaints) were either hidden or ignored.

What a lot of people don’t understand is that this is actually a blessing. How? the lead pipes have always had lead in them and that lead has always been percolating through those same pipes into peoples drinking water poisoning them. Now they switch to a new water source which only flushes out more lead than noticed before. this is like the Canarie in the mine the poison was always there poisoning them its just now noticed. So I blame whoever allowed the lead pipes to stay in. I also blame the sheeple for taking so long to get upset because they like sheep waited until the government did anything for them instead of making much louder noise from the start. If my water looked like that I would have been there everyday for week and then sued their ass.

A blessing? How long do you think it will be before prominent Democrats are demanding that the Federal government replace all the lead pipes in Flint? Using Union workers of course. Because the children and jobs!

The “source” of the contamination was NOT the Flint River. It would not have mattered WHERE the water being used in the system was “sourced”. The issue was that protocols were not followed to ensure the water left treatment at the correct PH level for use in the antiquated water delivery system in Flint, which uses lead service lines.

Lead service lines, which are still in use in MANY municipalities in this country, are not ideal but can be used safely. This is because a protective layer of Lead Oxide crystal forms on the interior of these lines, which under proper conditions is not subject to leaching into the water.

In the case of Flint, the PH levels were wrong, which caused this protective layer to break down and lead to rust formation and elemental lead leaching into the water supply.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEP) is the agency in charge of seeing that the correct standards/methods are used, and failed to do so. This same department disrupted/altered testing to hide the issue.

The “source” of the contamination was NOT the Flint River. It would not have mattered WHERE the water being used in the system was “sourced”. The issue was that protocols were not followed to ensure the water left treatment at the correct PH level for use in the antiquated water delivery system in Flint, which uses lead service lines.

Lead service lines, which are still in use in MANY municipalities in this country, are not ideal but can be used safely. This is because a protective layer of Lead Oxide crystal forms on the interior of these lines, which under proper conditions is not subject to leaching into the water.

In the case of Flint, the PH levels were wrong, which caused this protective layer to break down and lead to rust formation and elemental lead leaching into the water supply.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEP) is the agency in charge of seeing that the correct standards/methods are used, and failed to do so. This same department disrupted/altered testing to hide the issue.

I must be blind but I cant find where the union signed off on the water from the river. I guess now Reason has gone soviet or postmodern or some other wack because this whole article sounds like collective guilt tripping. And rather selective at that. how about the guy that signed off on the frigin work orders??? p.s. i agree the governor does not need to resign unless he was fully informed and had oportunity read all the risks and said “go ahead.” leaving it for the locals to do is fine otherwuise. But the union? your out of your libertarian nest!

The pubsec unions negotiated themselves hefty retirement packages over the last 50+ years, basically bankrupting the city.

Which is why the city was looking at getting their water from elsewhere instead of being assraped by Detroit.

Oh, and the “guy that signed off on the frigin work orders” was a Democrat Emergency Manager appointed because, wait for it, the city was basically bankrupt thanks to the ridiculous public sector union retirement packages.

Detroit was charging Flint a higher rate than its other customers because of Flint’s elevation.

Flint used to resell some of the water they got from Detroit to counties around Flint but those counties couldn’t afford them, so they formed the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) to get their own water from the Lake Huron. This decision cut Flint’s revenues which helped to contribute to Flint’s fiscal woes.

How dare those “pubsec” unions steal the checkbook and give themselves those big pensions, without the knowledge of the Mayor and City Council. As soon as they saw the City in financial trouble those municipal employees should all have done what private sector workers do and quit their jobs, to relieve the burden. Amirite? Looks like public employees, especially unionized ones, are destined to join Booosh and global warming as the cause of all the troubles America is facing.

It must be a real burn for you having nothing but your strawman to blame for the failure of your deity, Big Government, to perform even its most basic functions–those things that you insist only Big Government is sufficiently competent and ethical to do.

The death spiral of cities like Flint is always the same. The productive tax payers in the private sector leave to find work elsewhere and the unproductive remain and with nearly the same level of public services and employees. reality intrudes and budgets are cut but not on public union employees. The pension legacy costs are not immediate but they are inevitable. Math is hard for people in government it seems because they all make the same huge mistakes.

Got any figures to go with that? Like the number of public sector employees being hired, yearly, to replace retiring ones? In my experience, it is the vote-buying schemes that are the ones that remain just as highly funded by the politicians, who have given their employees promises of future benefits, like pensions, in lieu of raises, with the full expectation of not being around, and collecting their own short-term-employment pensions, when the other ones come due. No one can criticize a public sector employee unless they can, honestly, say they would refuse to take an increase in a benefit offered by their employer, because it would cost the employer too much. P.S. Unions don’t get everything they want from their contract negotiations, in fact, they probably get less than the government was ready to part with as their final offer. Politicians want as much money as they can for mass vote-buying schemes and the votes of their employees are chump-change. What unions contribute to campaigns is, also, a drop in the bucket. Spoken as someone who has been involved in this process.

A public sector union can conspire with their government employers because they’re being paid with other people’s money (the tax payers). Then the union kicks back campaign contributions so keep their sugar daddies in power.

You’ll notice the handle above: “retiredfire”. S/he’s a retired firefighter who is all for libertarian causes, except when it means kicking the pub-sec unions off the gravy train. Nothing wrong with the pub-sec unions stealing taxpayer money, right, retiredfire?

River water in many places is stained with tannins and humic acid. These are natural by produces of plant material breakdown, like all the leaves that fall in the autumn. You may have notice that tea has the same color, and it is made from leaves. Rivers all over the northeast have this same color. Clear rivers tend to be fed from sources that do not have lots of plants, or decomposition is retarded by cool weather, like in the rock mountains. Time of year also matters. Fall leaves decompose in the spring.

That’s stupid because it was about $100 a day in limestone. The stuff is dirt cheap because it is essentially dirt. That amounts to a savings of $36,000 which is chump change compared by what they were saving using river water.

This is the most fun reporting I’ve seen in Reason since the Love Canal. Local government forced a chemical company to hand over its land for a playground, then a State government monopoly tore the south end open for one of those roads Socialists believe did not exist before Max Manifesto Plank 2 was added to the Constitution. Suddenly some harmless private property was converted into a toxic monument to altruism, sacrifice and death. With any luck, the Michiganders will get more of what they voted for. Let experience teach them some harsh lessons.

I understand that there is/was no lead in the Flint River water supply but that it was highly corrosive, like the CAP water delivered to Tucson Az in 1995. This corrosive water ate through lead pipes in some of the buildings in Flint (I do not know the extent) and delivered lead from the pipes to its occupants.

The true cause of the lead poisoning is the failure of the buildings owners to remove what has been agreed to be hazardous: lead pipes for water consumption. How this was not mandated and regulated, and inspected, permitted, taxed, and had top men determining that it was safe for the chilluns I do not know.

Also to fault, although I excuse them, are the occupants of those buildings for not taking due diligence for their own safety… in their defense, they have been taught that someone is “looking out for them in these matters”.

The #FlintWaterCrisis is not a blueprint for what would happen if libertarians abolished government and let poor people drink poisoned water, as some enemies of free markets are no doubt claiming. Instead, it’s a great example of government failing to efficiently provide even the most basic of public services due to a characteristically toxic combination of administrative bloat and financial mismanagement.

Just being devil’s advocate here, but I think some of those that have been blessed with a streak of altuism are saying that the river should never had been polluted in the first place.

The argument people seem to be making is that the decision was so stupid that state regulatory agencies should have prevented it and that the state appointed emergency manager should have fixed it. Sorry, I don’t buy it. These decisions were local responsibility; the fact that the city council was so inept that it couldn’t manage its own affairs and an emergency manager needed to be appointed doesn’t mean that all of a sudden all of Flint’s problems became the responsibility of the emergency manager. When you set your own house on fire, the fire department should try to put out the flames as best they can, if not for any other reason than to protect your neighbors, but they aren’t responsible for the smoking ruin you return to.

The EMs only role was to oversee via an approval process the decisions the the City of Flint officials (COFO) were making. His signature was one of three required for approval and the two others were also COFO signatures. The decision to move to the Flint River was evaluated by slews of qualified people, and what the EM signed were things like a request by the COFO to hire an engineering firm to evaluate the switch, or financial documents. The multiple emergency managers had no role in deciding what was safe or unsafe. Multiple local COF agencies approved the plan. It was long after the governing process that the stated plan was not followed by the COF bureaucrats and the COF screwed up in not treating the acidity of the water with limestone. There was a the state environmental agency tasked with monitoring but it happened to screw up too. It was supposed to check up on what the locals were doing but didn’t follow the proper procedures to do so. The blame belongs to COF and to the state environmental agency, and EPA.

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“Updated at 3:30 p.m. on January 21: Local officials dispute that they played any formal role in the decision to use the Flint River…, instead pinning the blame on the state-appointed EM. The emergency manager, on the other hand, says the decision was made by the city long before his appointment.”

The local officials are lying. Go to that article by Lindsey Smith and following her links to the original documents. Lindsey Smith presents her interpretation of events which could only be true if someone invented time travel. There were multiple state-appointed emergency mangagers and their role is to review and reject or accept decisions by the local officials and nothing else. The emergency manager Darnell Earley is correct in that the decisions were made before his appointment in September 2013. City of Flint officials had made the decision earlier as per: “This was approved at the city council meeting in a 7-1 vote on Monday, March 25, 2013.”

What is clear is that the city officials requested the hiring of LA&K Engineering firm to evaluate using the Flint River as a temporary water source (approved by the EM and two city officials). They met at the city plant for a day with LA&K and others, got a report from LA&K, had it reviewed by Flint City public works and other agencies, and got a recommendation that they switch to the Flint River entirely from Flint City sources. They then made the final decision to do it June 29, 2013.

Michigan was once Blue-on-Blue Democrat stronghold and there has been some* revitalization there since it’s gone Not-Blue. Although I don’t agree with all of Snyder’s actions, he has generally followed (or tried) what Mitch Daniels did for Indiana. Since the Democrat Urban Machine was bruised, and there has been some success following a non-progressive model of governance, the Snyder must be destroyed.

The thing about Michigan is it’s highly symbolic, and highly numerated, for the Democrat party. If they lose Michigan, the Blue State Progressive model, though empirically a failure already, will show success when laws and economics are loosened away from union/Democrat power.

So, the EPA, DEQ, and Democrat city council knew the problems with the lead, the water, etc. Then waited for people to get hurt to make the non-Democrats look bad to go back to the Blue State Machine. Dirty politics, but what’s new for the Democrats?

In this age of exploding collectivism and imploding individualism, one person’s mistakes become another’s responsibility. The motto has become, “I err ? you pay.”

Some examples? Puerto Rico intentionally assumes debt that it knows that it never can repay; federal aid. Flint, Michigan changes its source of municipal water from the relatively clean Lake Michigan to the toxic Flint River, thereby, poisoning its own children ? federal aid. People build on flood-plains then suffer massive damages when the rains inevitably arrive ? federal aid.

Wait! The federal government may print a currency that it continuously debases, but upon what is that currency founded? The power to tax productive citizens. When those who intentionally engage in economically injurious behavior demand “federal aid”, they are putting their hands into other people’s pockets.

“Ah, but we should help each other,” claim the “humanitarians”.

If robbing a prudent Peter to save an imprudent Paul is “humanitarianism”, that word has become an obscenity. Behavior should have its rightful consequences.

I’ve made $76,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.I’m using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money.It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it.

I’ve made $76,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.I’m using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money.It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it.

I’ve made $76,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.I’m using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money.It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it.

I’ve made $76,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.I’m using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money.It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it.

I’ve made $76,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.I’m using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money.It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it.

I’ve made $76,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.I’m using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money.It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it.

I’ve made $76,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.I’m using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money.It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it.

“My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can’t believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do..

Who poisoned Flints water becomes a screed to beat on government hacks and public pensions. Root cause is a broken pension system:1900 retired pensioners somehow are causing the problem because they are breaking the bank? The episode displays government ineptness and becomes a case study in feckless government bureaucrats causing all problems? Of course no alternative is placed before the reader. Lets put a few of the “private sector” successes up there for review: In WVa two well documented examples of large scale industrial contamination of drinking water – the contamination of the Elk River and drinking water in Parkersburg – has left thousands ill or dead. In NC, the release of sediment laced with metals from coal ash ponds has left miles of river polluted. In NY, the Hudson river is laced with PCB’s. The list is endless. Is all of this caused by feckless government bureaucrats looking the other way? I submit that root cause are the rules and regulations government employees work under that derive from an interaction between our elected representatives and extra-governmental interests. The effect is to make sure those rules are either not enforced or are so diluted that there is no effect in enforcement. It is a cynical display that is designed to say: “government is the problem”. Exactly and particularly when a political ideology that views effective governance in a dim light and so is not moved to govern effectively. What would you expect the outcome to be.

Yes, you correctly cite examples of private industry poisoning the water. That does not mean there are not other examples of government (even the EPA themselves) poisoning the water. One difference is when government is guilty, no one goes to jail. They just shrug or blame the nearest Republican.

Sorry, none of the points you make bear scrutiny. What are the examples of the government or EPA purposely poisoning the air or water? And there have been no convictions or arrests in the industrial pollution cases cited. Fines were imposed but these were negotiated settlements to the benefit of the defendants. Cost of business. To make the argument that the Flint case somehow “proves” the ineptness of government borders on asserting truth by using a meaningless cliche. That ineptness, even criminal behavior, exists everywhere. There is little difference between hacks in private industry and hacks in government. The people in each organization are responding to the prevailing mores, the culture, of the organization. Bad culture — bad outcomes. I have worked in industry my entire professional career. There is no end to the nonsense that goes on. But, that can be largely compensated with good leadership, sound decision making and execution of a plan. All of that is plainly lacking in the Flint case and bears poorly on the Flint city managers and the State of Michigan. It also reflects poorly on Dupont, Duke Energy, GE and other companies who have done the same. I have a simple rule: fix the problem before you fix blame. Given all that has happened in Flint, how do you propose to fix the problem? I see a lot of finger pointing and “gotcha” comments in these posts but little by way of constructive commentary as to how to fix the immediate and larger systemic problems.

Reason4thinking|1.22.16 @ 9:26PM|# “Who poisoned Flints water becomes a screed to beat on government hacks and public pensions. Root cause is a broken pension system:1900 retired pensioners somehow are causing the problem because they are breaking the bank? The episode displays government ineptness and becomes a case study in feckless government bureaucrats causing all problems?”

Yes. Yes. Yes. BTW, your handle is a lie; you obviously do not think; you post talking points.

Google pay 97$ per hour my last pay check was $8500 working 1o hours a week online. My younger brother friend has been averaging 12k for months now and he works about 22 hours a week. I cant believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is wha- I do…… ?????? http://www.richi8.com

It amazes me how the statists among us always wants to involve the government into everything, but show them this and somehow the government needs to get more involved, yet again? Is is just me or is private water sources on average better, i.e. bottled water.

Why did she overlook the mayor, Karen Weaver, the ENTIRE city council, the U.S. House Representative, Both State representatives, Both U.S. Senators, the state Senator, and the current President when Hillary pointed out that Republican Governor Snyder was to blame?

Its not republican governing that caused this, it was democrats taking advantage of the poor because the poor keep handing over their votes without question. Now, thanks to the lead in the water, it looks as though they will be handing over the lives of their children as well . . . how about that change folks!!! How about that change!!!!

I’ve made $76,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.I’m using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money.It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it.

I’ve made $76,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.I’m using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money.It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it.

Yahoo CEO, Marissa Meyer has gone som far as to Support the practice “Work at home” that I have been doing since last year. In this year till now I have earned 66k dollars with my pc, despite the fact that I am a college student. Even newbies can make 39 an hour easily and the average goes up with time. Why not try this.

Yahoo CEO, Marissa Meyer has gone som far as to Support the practice “Work at home” that I have been doing since last year. In this year till now I have earned 66k dollars with my pc, despite the fact that I am a college student. Even newbies can make 39 an hour easily and the average goes up with time. Why not try this.

My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can’t believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do..

My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can’t believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do..

My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can’t believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do..

Start working at home with Google! It’s by-far the best job I’ve had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for $6474 this – 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least $77 per hour. I work through this link, go to tech tab for work detail.

My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can’t believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do..

My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can’t believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do..

I was born and raised in Flint. Flint was a wonderful place in the 60’s and 70’s. Awash in UAW high salaries for everyone. The money filtered through the UAW picked city commission. The place was full of things for children to do. Then the bubble burst. Car buyers got tired of paying top dollar for an inferior product. GM got smart and decided that they could build cars cheaper and better elsewhere than their alcohol and drug addled employees in Flint could build. And they got tired of paying the property taxes that enabled liberal government largess and corruption. All that is left of this once proud city is an ever declining population of GM retirees and their out of wedlock grandchildren. These circumstance only strengthened the liberal hold on local government. The people running the city can’t keep toilet paper in their bathrooms much less provide even the most basic services. The only reason that Flint is not bankrupt is there is nothing left to declare bankruptcy over. The city owes many times over what they could possibly come up with. Most people reading this have more money in their checking account that Flint has in theirs. When the retirees finally move away or die the city will be good for nothing other than a proving ground for bulldozers. This should be the prime example of what happens when liberals run out of other peoples money. The water problems are only a highly visible indicator of what is an entirely rotten situation.